Cases in piles : A qualitative study on how mental illness among social workers leads to long term sick leave
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Sick leave due to mental illness has increased dramatically in recent decades and is today one of the main reasons why individuals become long-term sick. Social workers job situation within social service has in recent years attracted an increasing attention and the debate has largely been about the high workload in the profession. Mental illness for social workers is a growing problem and there are no signs of a positive trend shift. The purpose of this study was to create a wider understanding of why social workers are prevented to work due to mental illness, goes on medical leave, and find out if it is possible to identify which common factors in these social workers stories. To answer the study's purpose, two issues have been considered. Partly which factors long-term sick social workers identified as the reason for their mental illness that led to long-term illness, and how the long-term sick social workers describe their individual experiences before, during and after their sick leave. The methodology has been a qualitative design where eight long-term sick social workers scattered around the country conducted interviews via e-mail through a semi-structured interview guide. The result will be divided and presented in three themes; Social workers practical work which concerns the social workers descriptions of their work place in the social services and the factors of the organization that has affected their work situation. It also presents the social workers perception of the impact of political decisions concerning the field of social work. The theme of social workers profession presents the results that have emerged and concerns how social workers perceive and identify their professional role. The third theme of individual experiences by social workers presents the results concerning the personal reflections that social workers have about themselves and their future role as a professional social worker. The study results show that job related factors largely affected the individual's mental health. It is clear that the structures upon an organisational level, the complexity of the professional role contra individual ideals have affected and led to the social workers present situation of long-term sick due to mental illness. The concluding section of this paper discusses several components with potential for development as possible contributing solutions to the problematic situation that made these social workers sick. Social work education, leadership and skills development are areas that are challenged in our discussion.
Authors: Santana Santana, Arminda, Tejne, Linn
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7083224499